Promises and Dreams
by Miss xDivine
Summary: Lily Evans doesnt believe in promises, her trust has been broken too many times. But what if one person was to make those promises come true?
1. Prologue: My mother

When I was a child, my mother and I would sit down at the kitchen table every Friday night with my crayons and fancy note paper and write a list of things that we were going to do that weekend. Every Friday I would get so excited at the thought of how we were going to spend the next day. I would pin the schedule up above my bed and force myself to go to sleep so morning would come quicker and I could spend the day with my mum. That list of things to do wasn't a coventional list of activities, it was a collection of impossibly hopeless dreams.

My mother promised me we could lie in a field of wildflowers at night and catch as many falling stars as we could. We talked about lying in great big pools of cherry blossoms, tasting sun showers, twirling around our village and dancing under the sprinklers that watered the grass in the summer. She promised that we could have a moon-lit picnic on the beach and that we could catch dandelion seeds to make wishes and all our hearts desires would come true. We never go to do any of those things. There was only one thing that my mother promised and followed up on. She promised me that for my seventh birthday, we could go and have a party in the garden.

On that day, my mother, my sister Petunia and I sat in the garden surrounded by daisies and delicate yellow buttercups and we ate freshly baked bread, piping hot from the oven and smothered in homemade raspberry jam. I can still remember the smell of fresh grass, the taste of the bread and the sounds of chirping birds in the trees. That day we all made daisy chains and draped them over one another. That memory is the most vivid memory of my childhood, not because it was the only promise that my mother kept, but because the very next day she told me that she was leaving.

She told me that she was too big a person for such a small town. She told me that a free spirit couldn't be kept chained to one place forever. My father just let her leave us, so that next day, my mother floated out of my life nd my father was never the same again. Petunia, who once was exactly the same as our mother and I, became cold and angry. She rarely smiled and she became very bitter towards me. Both Petunia and my father blamed me for my mother leaving because I was the youngest. Before I had arrived, they said, my mother had been perfectly fine, though I knew that she had always been the same. Nevertheless I felt so guilty and my dreams were shattered.

Then I got my Hogwarts letter... 


	2. July 22nd 1971

**July 22nd 1971**

My mother had been gone for nearly four years and it was coming up to my eleventh birthday. We only saw her twice a year, on my birthday and on Petunia's birthday. Every year I would make elaborate plots with which I could tempt my mother into staying with us. Every year, it failed. When she visited, she would bring us presents, gifts of sparkling glass pendants or boxed orchids. She would float into our lives and we would hope against hope that she was here to stay but she never did.

It was the day of my eleventh birthday, July 22nd 1971. I knew that that day my mother would be coming to visit and all week I had been preparing. I had made her a 'Welcome Home' banner using my best paints and glitter, pansies from the garden and making chains of daisies to hang on the curtain rails. I had convinced my father to let me make a special cake, my mother's favourite- lemon sponge with raspberry icing and Petunia had made us a cloth to cover the table. She had spent 2 months making it, sewing thousands of tiny flowers onto it by hand, she was just as excited as I was though she tried not to show it.

We set the table and sat down to wait, I couldnt keep the grin off my face. We sat there for 3 hours, the ticking clock the only sound in the room. Finally, Petunia got angry and swept everything off the table.

"This is your fault Lily. I hate you," she spat at me hatefully before storming out of the room. I sat still, I couldn't move, tears were pricking my eyes and my chest felt tight. I was so let down, so disappointed, that I vowed that I would never believe in another promise again. People who made promises always broke them and let me down and it wasn't fair.

I must have sat in my chair for hours, the light was fading around me and stars were beginning to appear in the sky. Even though it was late July, I was freezing, numb with cold and disappointment. I guess I didn't notice, I was too busy thinking, hundreds of unanswered questions and doubts running through my head. Where was my mother? Was it my fault that she hadn't turned up? Had she left us forever? What had I done wrong? Was it because I was worthless?

Just as I was contemplating the answer to that last question, I had a tapping on the window. I turned my head, stiff from the hours of sitting slouched in my seat and staring at the wooden table. To my confusion, I couldn't see what was making the noise. Awkwardly I stood up, my joints creaking, glad to be moving again. I made my way over to the window and opened the catch. Suddenly I heard a whooshing sound and felt a gust of air. The momentum was strong enough to knock me backwards into the table.

I looked around the kitchen in shock and spotted a large bird perched on the chair I had been sitting on. Upon closer inspection, I realised it was an owl which appeared to have an envelope attached to its leg. Hesitantly I stepped closer to the owl who seemed to be holding its leg out to me. I untied the string and looked at the front of the envelope. It had my name on. Not only that, it had my exact location written on the front as well. As soon as I had taken the letter, the owl flew off through the open window and into the inky night sky. Carefully I opened the envelope and pulled out a letter written on parchment in what looked to be green ink.

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_ (Order of Merlin, 1st Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Evans _

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We hope to receive your owl shortly,_

_Minerva McGonagall,  
Deputy Headmistress_

Attached to the letter was a list of things that I supposed I would need for the school. You see unlike some of my other muggleborn friends, I believed what the letter said straight away. How could I not with a mother like mine? She told me to believe in things that everybody else were convinced did not exist. The letter even made me forget my sorrow at my ruined birthday. This letter was like a beacon of hope, maybe I wasn't worthless after all.

A.N Feedback is appreciated :)


	3. September 1st 1971

**September 1st 1971**

It was the first day of September, the start of my favourite time of year. I remember that day vividly, I think it will always be a key day in my life,  
a turning point if you will.

I recall so easily the crisp cool of the morning, the grass wet with dew, tiny droplets that looked like jewels sparkling in the morning light. The trees were decorated with scarlet and gold leaves which drifted to the ground when the breeze swirled through the branches. I had risen earlier than normal, excitement and nerves keeping me awake for most of the night. I'd been sitting in the kitchen looking out of the window since 6 o' clock that morning. My trunk had been packed since the beginning of August and I had emptied and repacked it at least eight times since then.

Finally I heard the heavy footsteps of my father as he emerged from his room. I willed him to have his breakfast as quickly as he could so that we could set off.  
He didn't acknowledge me at all, just slowly began to eat. I was confused, had he forgotten that I was leaving today? Usually, I wouldn't dare interupt his breakfast, but I couldn't contain myself.

"When can we leave for the train station?" I asked timidly, wringing my hands together in my lap and fidgeting in my seat.

"We aren't going. I've decided that I don't want you going to that freak school. Petunia's right, you're already too bolshy for you're own good and all that school will do is give you ideas beyond your station. You can start St. Catherine's with Petunia tomorrow. We'll return all of _that_ later today," he answered curtly, gesturing to my trunk.

I think that was the most I had ever heard him speak all at once and I also think it was one of the worst things he had ever said to me. In that moment I felt all of my hopes and dreams shatter into a thousand pieces.

I didn't waste my time trying to change his mind, it would be utterly pointless. Instead, I ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs. I charged into Petunia's room and sent her flying as I flung myself at her. I was hysterical, tears were streaming down my face as I struck out blindly. I felt a crack, but in my rage I didn't care. How _dare_ she ruin this for me.

We were both screaming and crying when my father entered the room. He dragged me away from her and I fell silent at once.

"Get her away from me! She's a freak, I hate her. Let her go to that stupid school. I never want to see her again," Petunia screeched, holding her hand over her face. Blood was streaming out from behind her hands, I must have broken her nose. I was glad though, I didn't feel sorry.

"Get your things and get in the van," my father barked at me angrily before ordering Petunia to stop crying. A glimmer of hope flickered inside me, was he going to let me go after all?

I almost flew down the stairs and gathered my things together. I sat in the back seat in my father's old van and watched him get in the front. He started the engine which usually took at least 15 minutes to start, maybe it was fate that it started first time that day. My father swung the car around and we sped off down the dusty track which led away fom the house. Normally I would be terrified of his reckless driving but today I was ecstatic as we wove through the traffic.

Eventually we arrived at King's Cross at ten minutes to 11. Hurriedly I grabbed my trunk and stood beside the van. I expected some acknowledgement of my departure but there was none. My father had left as soon as I had taken my trunk from the van and closed the door. On one hand, I felt so alone and rejected but on the other, I was so excited to be going to Hogwarts that right at that moment, I didn't care.

Slowly, I wheeled my trunk up to platform 9. I looked around me but I couldn't see any sign of platform 9 3/4. I did however catch sight of a short boy with messy black hair who was swaggering down the platform, his trunk pulled along by his father. With a rare burst of confidence, I hurried to catch up with him.  
As I reached him, his father was just ruffling his hair and starting to leave.

"Erm, excuse me," I said, not so confident now I was standing straight in front of the boy, "Could you please tell me how to get to platform 9 3/4?"

The boy looked up surprised, as if everyone should know how to get to the platform. I felt foolish and embarassed but I had to find out quickly.

"Sure! All you have to do is run straight through that barrier there," he said pointing to a wall that was between platform 8 and 9. Stupidly, I didn't think to question the fact that 9 and 3/4 doesn't lie between 8 and 9. I was far too grateful to the boy.

"Are you sure that's right?" I questioned, running straight at a wall contradicted all of my common sense.

"Yeah, I promise!" he said smiling at me in such a way that it was impossible not to believe him. That smile was to become a source of much aggravation to the Hogwart's staff in years to come.

Completely trusting the boy, I ran at the wall and crashed into it heavily. My trunk cracked and I could feel a bruise forming on my stomach. At that moment,  
everything that had happened that day rushed over me and I burst into tears. I could hear a group of boys laughing and could make out one saying "Nice one James!"

After a few seconds, I felt a hand on my arm and looked up into a pair of sympathetic brown eyes.

"Come on, let's get you on the train," the owner of said brown eyes whispered in my ear. It was a tall girl with frizzy blonde pigtails and a cheerful looking face. I let her lead me through the right barrier and onto the Hogwart's Express. Even though my face was tear-stained, I had a cracked trunk and a bruised stomach, I could still appreciate the girl's kindness and the gleaming, scarlet train in front of me.

The girl, who's name turned out to be Emmeline, which was one of many pieces of information that I could gather from the chattering girl, turned into an empty compartment.

"Want to sit with me?" she asked smiling.

"Of course!" I replied eagerly, still feeling silly and glad that I had somebody to sit by on the train. Faintly, I could hear the voice of boy explaining how he had tricked 'some stupid muggle' into running into a wall, and the ensuing raucous laughter of his friends.

A.N I apologise for the rushed chapter. Transition chapters are never exciting! Dedicated to Cath, just because I can :)


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